1. Field of Invention
This invention finds use in the field of the transmission and distribution of electric power. In particular, this invention relates to the application of RFID or similar wireless technology to monitor operating characteristics and/or capture historical parametric data about events that have occurred on the power circuit.
2. Background
Systems have been developed and are currently in use to indicate the operating characteristics of a power distribution circuit. Examples and some of their limitations include:                Voltmeters and clamp on ammeters used by field crews to measure voltage and current. These devices are usually used in troubleshooting and are not designed for continuous real time monitoring of operating characteristics. This equipment also requires that an employee bring the device to the site and connect it to the circuit in order to capture the information.        Faulted circuit indicators have also found wide application to identify if a fault has occurred on the system. These devices are left on the circuit but usually provide only a yes or no identification of a faulted circuit event. Parameters such as time of occurrence, fault direction, fault magnitude, etc are not available. In addition, many of these devices are battery operated and, as such, require periodic maintenance or have a shortened useful lifetime after which they are replaced.        System Control & Data Acquisition (SCADA) Systems utilize a personal computer (PC) or a mainframe computer to monitor characteristics in real time. SCADA systems have the capability to perform many of the improvements captured with this invention. They are however quite expensive per monitored point and, because of this currently find limited use only in the most critical portions of the power distribution circuit such as substations. In addition, these types of systems require that ancillary, expensive data acquisition equipment such as a current transformers, voltage transducers, and phase angle transducers be hard wired into the circuit in order to capture information.        Additionally, systems employing the technology can allow autonomous control operation of certain switching and switch closing/opening functions in a distributed fashion rather than the centralized fashion of present SCADA systems.        